College students, what the hell is the matter with some of you?

[Spoooon]

In the past, I posted that I was a TA for a research methods lab. I've been letting everyone go after 30-45 minutes (class is scheduled for 120) because it doesn't take very long to cover the material and get our work done.

I start taking roll, and a group of guys are talking. Talking loud. Like they're in their house or something. And they won't shut up. I ask them to settle down. They still don't shut up. Finally, I get mad and tell them to shut the f*ck up so we can get started and get our s*it done. I didn't actually say shut the f*ck up though. I wanted to. I'm not sure if I can get in trouble or lose my job if I let someone have it like that. I just said to get quiet so we can get our crap done and go home. Every Tuesday it's like that.

You would think that the students would think it's great that we get to go home early all the time and will just want to get things done so it can happen. Apparently not. Some of them to prefer to waste my time and the time of the other students.

My other lab is awesome. I take roll, they sit down and quiet down, we do the lab and go home in no time. Tuesday's lab always sucks.

So, give your TA a break. He probably wants to be there even less than you do.

 

Well said. I hate those fsckers who talk and bitch and whine about assignments when their parents are paying $25,000 a year to send them here.

 

[Shockwave]

Pop quiz's work.
We had one teacher who would just sit at the front of the room and read a bok until we shut up and got ready. He wouldnt say anything, just sit there and read. People learned real quick, We have X material to cover. We were gonna cover it whether we started then, or half an hour later.
Try that method. Just explain you'll start when everyone is ready. Then sit there and read until they shut up. They'll probably learn real quick its better to shut up and do it then be stuck in class for 3 hours

 

[RIGorous1]

I don't know what kind of students you have, but it appears you have some losers in your crowd. You're just unfortunate this time, but its your resilience through this crap that separates the doctorates from the TA's. If I were you I'd give them a little slack cause they're probably failing or have no interest. If they still keep it up the give them some "special time" where you point them out in class and grill them... and if they still persist then hold the session to its full time, go really slow, and make them read from the text out loud or something, then tell them after class that that's what happen's when you F@CK with the wrong guy.

Rig

 

[Spoooon]

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Pop quiz's work.
We had one teacher who would just sit at the front of the room and read a bok until we shut up and got ready. He wouldnt say anything, just sit there and read. People learned real quick, We have X material to cover. We were gonna cover it whether we started then, or half an hour later.
Try that method. Just explain you'll start when everyone is ready. Then sit there and read until they shut up. They'll probably learn real quick its better to shut up and do it then be stuck in class for 3 hours

That's a pretty good idea. But my Tuesday class has some thickheaded numbskulls that would gladly waste all our time by sitting there and talking away.

And there are people in the Tuesday class that I genuinely like and don't really want them to have to suffer because of a few idiots.

 

[RIGorous1]

Originally posted by: Spoooon

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Pop quiz's work.
We had one teacher who would just sit at the front of the room and read a bok until we shut up and got ready. He wouldnt say anything, just sit there and read. People learned real quick, We have X material to cover. We were gonna cover it whether we started then, or half an hour later.
Try that method. Just explain you'll start when everyone is ready. Then sit there and read until they shut up. They'll probably learn real quick its better to shut up and do it then be stuck in class for 3 hours

That's a pretty good idea. But my Tuesday class has some thickheaded numbskulls that would gladly waste all our time by sitting there and talking away.

And there are people in the Tuesday class that I genuinely like and don't really want them to have to suffer because of a few idiots.

Well that's the price the whole must pay... hopefully after class someone will come around and tell those people to STFU... either that or give a "random quizzes" and give those people the hard quiz while giving everyone else something easier.

 

[Jzero]

So, give your TA a break. He probably wants to be there even less than you do.

And this, dear friends, is the fundamental flaw in our higher ed. system.
The professors don't want to teach because they'd rather be doing research.
So they dump their teaching work on TAs who don't want to teach because they'd rather be doing research or working on their own degree.

And at the end of the day, the paying customer (the student) is faced with a staff that doesn't really want to do exactly what the student is paying to have them do.

But that is annoying about those people. I'd tell them to shut it if I was in the class.

 

[Spoooon]

Originally posted by: Jzero

So, give your TA a break. He probably wants to be there even less than you do.

And this, dear friends, is the fundamental flaw in our higher ed. system.
The professors don't want to teach because they'd rather be doing research.
So they dump their teaching work on TAs who don't want to teach because they'd rather be doing research or working on their own degree.

And at the end of the day, the paying customer (the student) is faced with a staff that doesn't really want to do exactly what the student is paying to have them do.

But that is annoying about those people. I'd tell them to shut it if I was in the class.

Hey, I'm there to help the kids. I don't mind spending my time on them, as long as it isn't time wasted. Kids talking during class while we're trying to get things done is wasting my time and the time of the students that are trying to learn. That irritates me.

I make it clear every week that I'm available during office hours or after class for questions and that I'm willing to stay the whole time if I need to. Because that isn't wasting my time.

Spending 2 hours in a lab that can be done in 30 minutes because some students just won't STFU isn't cool.

 

[CPA]

Tell 'em to leave.

 

kick them out for that day. Tell them until they learn to shut up, they arent welcome back. If they have a problem with it, they can take it up with the department. They are disrupting the learning process of the other students.

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: Spoooon

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Pop quiz's work.
We had one teacher who would just sit at the front of the room and read a bok until we shut up and got ready. He wouldnt say anything, just sit there and read. People learned real quick, We have X material to cover. We were gonna cover it whether we started then, or half an hour later.
Try that method. Just explain you'll start when everyone is ready. Then sit there and read until they shut up. They'll probably learn real quick its better to shut up and do it then be stuck in class for 3 hours

That's a pretty good idea. But my Tuesday class has some thickheaded numbskulls that would gladly waste all our time by sitting there and talking away.

And there are people in the Tuesday class that I genuinely like and don't really want them to have to suffer because of a few idiots.

The point is, the students will police themselves. The knuckleheads may be happy sittin there, but people like me who have shyte do to will straight out tell them to Shut the FU(K UP!
And we did. Because most students wanna get done and get home. After once or twice of bein there for ever, they'll shape up if for no other reason then the rest of the class will bit(h them out all the time.

Try it a few times. You'll see

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: jumpr
Well said. I hate those fsckers who talk and bitch and whine about assignments when their parents are paying $25,000 a year to send them here.

if i was paying $25,000 per year for school(which i am, or very close to) I would be pissed if i had a TA at all. My school has professors exclusively. I'm not paying that much money to be lectured by some pissant wannabe who knows jack sh!t about the field i am studying yet acts high and mighty.

 

[Rilescat]

they are only in school for T, A, and B.

 

[wyvrn]

The state school I go to has almost all small classes. I pay state rates and get a near private school education. It rocks and is much better than sitting in a class with 400 people, which I have done before at another more popular state university.

I have little patience for time wasters in class. This morning, I had a Java programming test. Some idiot left his cell phone on in class. What's worse, and what I could not believe, was that he answered it in class and was having these conversations. What's even worse than that is the prof. did nothing about it. Students could use cell phones for cheating, so he should have taken up the kid's test. Or at least taken away his cell phone for the remainder of the class for us who need to f'ing concentrate!

 

[Spoooon]

Originally posted by: wyvrn
The state school I go to has almost all small classes. I pay state rates and get a near private school education. It rocks and is much better than sitting in a class with 400 people, which I have done before at another more popular state university.

I have little patience for time wasters in class. This morning, I had a Java programming test. Some idiot left his cell phone on in class. What's worse, and what I could not believe, was that he answered it in class and was having these conversations. What's even worse than that is the prof. did nothing about it. Students could use cell phones for cheating, so he should have taken up the kid's test. Or at least taken away his cell phone for the remainder of the class for us who need to f'ing concentrate!

If someone did that in my class, I would kick them out. I don't really get angry if a phone rings, just because for some people it's an honest mistake and I don't want to chew someone out for simply forgetting the one time. But having a conversation is a different matter.

 

[lowtech1]

I feel for you man...I too was a TA several years back. It is such an unrewarding job, but I learn a lot from prepare lectures to handle people. What you should have done is wrote on the board on the first class/lab that everything that they are learning in the lab will be on the final exam. Take 5 minutes at the end of the class & ask the student what they would do with $150.00 if they have it for free. Then explain to them that for every class that they wasted is that they have just donated it to the institution for free. And, then ask the people that disturb the class to reimburse the money to their class mates for the lost time.

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: FallenHero
kick them out for that day. Tell them until they learn to shut up, they arent welcome back. If they have a problem with it, they can take it up with the department. They are disrupting the learning process of the other students.

 

[dxkj]

Umm, give them a 0 for the class period and tell them to leave... Pretty simple

 

[Gage]

Kick the trouble makers out and give a really easy pop quiz to the rest of the class. The make-up quiz (if you chose to have one) should be close to impossible.

 

[Corporate Thug]

just give them the F

 

[sciencetoy]

Sorry, dude, but this is called leadership. Yeah, some college students are horrible, so what? You signed on for the job, it's your responsibility to find a way to deal with it. THIS is what you signed up for. If you don't like it, quit.

How would you address any other problem that comes up? Research. Talking to other people with the same problem. Talking to your superiors. Talking to "mentor" types who have overcome this problem. Trial and error.

Everyone deals with this differently. You have to figure out what works for you - discipline, joking, sneaky tricks, downgrading, whatever. But, it's up to you.

Stop snivelling and grow up a little.

 

[Spoooon]

Originally posted by: sciencetoy
Sorry, dude, but this is called leadership. Yeah, some college students are horrible, so what? You signed on for the job, it's your responsibility to find a way to deal with it. THIS is what you signed up for. If you don't like it, quit.

How would you address any other problem that comes up? Research. Talking to other people with the same problem. Talking to your superiors. Talking to "mentor" types who have overcome this problem. Trial and error.

Everyone deals with this differently. You have to figure out what works for you - discipline, joking, sneaky tricks, downgrading, whatever. But, it's up to you.

Stop snivelling and grow up a little.

I don't recall sniveling. I merely posted my experience. The problem has been dealt with. If the lesson doesn't hold, then something stricter may be required.

Please quote the "sniveling."

 

[sandmanwake]

Forget all that pop quiz crap, you shouldn't have to use such babysitting tactics. If they don't want to learn, tell them to leave class.

iamwiz82, you don't know what the hell you're talking about if you think all TA's are ignorant and act all high and mighty. I've tutored plenty of people on my own time (not time the university is paying me to be a TA) because the professor may know his stuff, but can't teach worth a lick. The students I've tutored have come back time and again to ask for help because they're beating the class averages on tests after I go over concepts and work problems with them. However, for those students who expect me to just give them an easy A on reports and lab works, I can tell they probably hate my guts because I expect them to actually do some of their own work. Do I care? Hell no, I'm here to help you learn, not just give you a passing grade, if you've got a problem with that go find some other class to be in.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: CPA
Tell 'em to leave.

as a former TA, i concur. if they refuse, call campus police.

 

College students are usually still children.